Girls from Izmir

Next time I go to Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city situated on the Aegean coast, I have to take a short skirt. Or shoes with high heels. Or even better, both. I was in Izmir this week, and wearing jeans and sneakers made me feel totally inelegant. I didn’t only feel inelegant, I was. At least, compared to the girls …

Stone throwers, pick-pockets, murderers

Whatever got into MHP leader Bahceli is a mystery to me, but he actually pleaded for an amnesty for all 5,000 kids in prison. Even more surprising: even the stone throwing kids from the southeast of Turkey should be included in the amnesty arrangement, he said. Why is that surprising? The MHP is a very nationalistic party, and usually they …

Turks commemorate mass killings of Armenians

ISTANBUL – For the first time Turks in Turkey have commemorated the mass killings of Armenians in 1915. A few hundred people joined together in ceremonies organized by IHD, one of the biggest human rights organisations in the country.

One of the commemorations took place by the train station from where on 24 April 1915 an initial convoy of Armenians left …

Party, lots of drunken guests

Imagine, Istanbul is hit by a major earth quake, magnitude 7.0 or higher. Then imagine that not only do people turn out to have been prepared, but they also know how they can help the rescue efforts effectively and save themselves and their fellow Istanbullers. Result: the number of casualties will be as low as possible. If the big earth …

Dutch in Turkey go home by bus

ISTANBUL – A handful of Dutch at the airport in Turkey’s main city Istanbul are getting ready for their trip home. By bus, for around thirty hours to Düsseldorf in Germany, and from there they will take a train. They didn’t get any help from KLM or their travel agent. Diana van Raampt, a woman in her fifties from Amsterdam: …

Baby in Turkey killed for ‘honour’

ISTANBUL – In the far west of Turkey a 2 day old baby has been killed to save the ‘honour’ of the family. The mother was not married to the father of the child, and this brought shame upon the family. Several Turkish papers report this story on Saturday.

The 25 year old mother got pregnant by her boyfriend before he …

Caricature of Atatürk

Ever seen a caricature of Atatürk? I did! Earlier today, a whole lot of them. Frankly, I didn’t totally understand them all. To do that, I would have to know many more details about the times in which Atatürk lived, and all the relevant persons and discussions at the time. Because the caricatures I saw dated back to the period …

Kurdish allowed in election campaign

ISTANBUL – The Turkish parliament has passed an amendment legalising the use of Kurdish in election campaigns, and thus removing an important restriction on the use of the language. This is according to reports in several Turkish media on Thursday. In parliament Turkish remains the only language allowed.

During last year’s local government elections, several Kurdish politicians got into trouble for …

Galatasaray, Rijkaard, Bursaspor, Twente

Full page pictures in the papers this week of Frank Rijkaard, Dutch coach of Galatasaray, one of the three big Istanbul clubs. A purple shawl (the colour of the Galatasaray shirts this season) around his neck, his head bowed down: his team just lost an important game against Sivasspor, a match they really should have won. Right up to the …

Dutch grey or Turkish colour?

While I’m typing this blog post, there is black dye in my hair. Twenty more minutes to go, then I can wash it out. The grey hairs that stick together in the front of my hairdo will be black again. And I wonder if in let’s say twenty years (I’ll be almost 60), I’ll be proudly grey like most Dutch …